The Dreaming

As with The Hounds of Love and her more recent album Ariel, the conceptual aspects of the album are fragmented, giving us only the vaguest hint of a reoccurring thread, with the music and the approach to the performance further blurring and fragmenting the album as a whole. As a result, the album is even more fascinating, and works well with repeated exposure. The opening track, Sat In Your Lap, was the album's biggest hit and is the song that seems closest to the style of Never for Ever. The percussion and the overall approach to the production however is much more dense and impenetrable, with layers of different instruments placed atop one another in a strangely dissonant harmony. The wild stabs of synthesisers and horns sets the adventurous template that will be stretched further on the subsequent songs, which move from the theatrical music hall style of There Goes a Tenner and my personal favourite track, Suspended in Gaffa, to the bizarre progressive aborigine dreamscape of the title track and beyond to the more recognisable Bush-like style of piano minimalism backed by 80's style synths and light orchestration found on songs like All the Love and Houdini.

The juxtaposition between the more familiar style with bizarre, experimental pieces like Pull Out the Pin, The Dreaming and the closing track, Get Out of My House, works extremely well, with the album drawing us into it's strange world by way of moments of intoxicating beauty (...before astounding and fascinating us with the more wild and adventurous moments). The song writing throughout is fantastic, with Bush rooting the songs in the aforementioned notion escape and captivity and the many ways in which these scenarios can be interpreted. There's no adolescent rumination of the Brönte sisters or beach scenes enlivened by billowing kites found here, with the songs advancing on the darker, more emotional themes of a song like Breathing. It's really the point in which Bush emerged as a serious and unique songwriter, interpreting her concept in a way that is mature and intelligent, but also emotionally captivating.

There Goes a Tenner is a comic romp regarding a group of amateur crooks planning a bank heist that can only lead to disaster when the other members of the gang spend more time deciding which classic gangster persona to adopt ("what about Edward G?"). On the other hand, Pulling Out the Pin takes the perspective of a Vietnamese man (or woman, the gender is none specific?) forced into conflict when threatened by the oppressive and life threatening appearance of the American GI's (including the heart-wrenching refrain "I love life... I love life... I love life"). Suspended in Gaffa has an orchestral swing that is just delightful, with Bush and brother Paddy adding stick-clanking percussion, mandolins, piano and those waltzing strings. It's the definite highlight for me, not just of this great album but of Bush's career as a whole. The Dreaming (the title track) is probably one of the most complex songs that Kate has ever created, dealing with the complicated history of Australia and the persecution of the aborigines, complete with bizarre and dreamlike lyrics ("bang! there goes a kanga on the bonnet of the van / see the light ran through the gaps of the land / many aborigines mistaken for a tree / till you near them on the motorway the tree begins to breathe") and such diverse, yet fitting instrumental touches, like wobble boards, animal calls and Rolf Harris on didgeridoo!!

The next three songs, Night of the Swallow, All the Love and Houdini show the more romantic and yearning side of escape and captivity (imprisonment of the heart, etc) whilst pushing the trademark "early Bush" style into new and exiting realms. Houdini in particular ties a number of the album's themes together, with the idea of captivity leading to destruction and the notion of the captive (here the romantic captor) and the sense of guilt with that evocative chorus ("with this kiss / I pass the key / and feel your tongue / teasing and receiving... WITH YOUR SPIT / STILL ON MY LIP / YOU'LL HIT THE WATER!!"). The closing song, Get Out of My House, is the most adventurous song on the album and also the closest thing to rock, with a pounding guitar riff and propulsive percussion. I'm not entirely sure if Bush is relating the song from the perspective of Jack Torrance or his beleaguered wife Wendy (does it matter?), but regardless, the song is fascinating and really quite terrifying.

The idea of a character held captive by a haunted house reminds me of Mario Bava's great film Shock with Daria Nicolodi, with the song capturing that same sense of fear, confusion and blind hysteria. It also allows Bush to do some acting, offering a vocal performance as the hotel's concierge, which reminds me a little of Mark E. Smith, as well as offering that absolutely frightening donkey impersonation!! The Dreaming is a monumental achievement from the (then) twenty-something Bush, here writing, producing and performing a collection of songs that manage to interpret a series of related themes, whilst also offering a collection of great, forward-thinking pop. For those who have already been captivated by the more acclaimed The Kink Inside, The Hounds of Love and Ariel, The Dreaming is really an integral purchase.